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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Al-Qaida militants and other terrorists traveling through Europe have obtained South African passports, and authorities believe they got them from crime syndicates operating inside the government agency that issues the documents.
The illicit acquisition of the passports, which allow travel through many African countries and Britain without visas, sent shock waves through South Africa after one top police official said "boxes and boxes" of the documents were discovered in London.
Barry Gilder, director general of the Department of Home Affairs, said he has come across a number of instances in which South African passports were found in the hands of al-Qaida suspects or their associates in Europe - in his current capacity and as a former deputy director in the National Intelligence Agency.
Gilder gave no specifics, and he described these as "isolated" cases. But he said his department is moving aggressively to counter the threat, dedicating more senior officials to fight corruption and introducing identity cards and passports containing microchips with the owner's fingerprints.
"We do not want our country to be used either as a staging post or haven for terrorists," Gilder said.
South African officials say crime syndicates selling the country's identity documents and passports for as little as $77 have operated inside Home Affairs for years.
They sell mostly to economic migrants, who find it easier to enter Europe or the United States on a South African passport than ones from their countries. But terrorists appear to be tapping into these networks, Gilder acknowledged.
In one instance, a Tunisian al-Qaida suspect, Ihsan Garnaoui, told German investigators he had a number of South African passports, the Associated Press reported. It is not clear how he got them.
Garnaoui was traveling on a forged Portuguese passport when he arrived in Germany in January 2003, on a journey via South Africa and Belgium. He is accused of planning bombings on American and Jewish targets to coincide with the start of the U.S.-led war on Iraq.
South African police Commissioner Jackie Selebi called attention to the illegal acquisition of passports when he told the National Assembly's safety and security committee that a number of people with "evil intentions against this country" were arrested and sent home shortly before April 14 elections.
This prompted the arrests of suspected al-Qaida members in Jordan, Syria and Britain, he said.